Pakistan settling Kashmiri militants in Sindh, locals angry

at 6:06 pm
Pakistan Government

Washington (NVI): Local people in Sindh are outraged as the Pakistan government is effecting a major demographic change in their land by settling Kashmiris who crossed over to Pakistan from India from 1989 onwards for training in militancy.

Sindhi leaders say it is part of a conspiracy by the Pakistani establishment to convert Sindhis into a minority and suppress their legitimate struggle for freedom from Pakistan.

“Jeay Sindh Freedom Movement (JSFM) rejects all programmes and plans of settlement of outsiders in Sindh,” said its Founder and Chief Organiser Zafar Sahito, while slamming the Pakistani establishment.

He was commenting on the Pakistan government’s recent letter to Sindh government seeking details of agricultural and residential land owned by Sindh government which could be used for settling “Kashmiri refugees of 1989 onwards”. These Kashmiris are those who crossed over to Pakistan for training in militancy but could not or did not return home, fearing the Indian law.

“We have already suffered a lot from decades after creation of theocratic Pakistan in 1947. Sindh lost its real owners of land — Sindhi Hindus — during partition. After that, hundreds of thousands of non-Sindhi people came to Sindh and the process is continuing, while original inhabitants of Sindh are becoming a minority in their own motherland,” Sahito said.

He said the “Punjabi Pakistani establishment” intentionally sent Bengali settlers to Sindh in 1960s while in 1979, Afghan refugees were sent to Sindh due to war in their region and in 2003, thousands of Pashtuns from Waziristan marched to Sindh after the military operation in Swat. Also, many Pakistani Punjabis, most of them military personnel, have laid claim to Sindhi land unlawfully.

Pakistan is bringing outsiders to Sindh while the original local people are living in miserable conditions of poverty, sans proper water or housing, Sahito said.

“Thousands of hectares of land and islands of Sindh have already been sold to China for CPEC projects,” the Sindhi leader said in a statement.

“Settling of outsiders in Sindh is the main cause of destruction of secular values in Sindh. In the recent times, Sindh is becoming a hub of terrorist groups as various radical Islamists have entered with the help of Pakistani intelligence agencies and establishment. These elements threaten local Sindhi people and spread fear among the peaceful people, while enjoying patronage of Pakistani authorities,” he said.

“Pashtun, Bangladeshis, Burmese and Kashmiri people too are victims of Pakistani Punjabi establishment and Sindhi nation doesn’t hate any race. But our concern is genuine because it is a matter of our future generations and motherland. I want to request representatives and leaders of these persecuted nations that don’t become victims of Pakistani establishment conspiracy and ask your people for leaving Sindh peacefully,” Sahito said.

“They want to convert us into a minority so that in future, we are not able to claim our national freedom of Sindhudesh,” the Sindhi leader said.